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WHEREAS,
the President’s FY 2013 budget calls for $525.4 billion in discretionary
funding for the base Department of Defense (DOD) budget, a decrease of 1
percent, or $5.1 billion, below the 2012 enacted level. DOD’s Overseas Contingency Operations funding
for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan would drop 23 percent; and WHEREAS,
Under the President’s proposal, DOD’s spending over the next 10 years would be
$486.9 billion less than was planned in last year’s budget and savings are to
be realized through “targeted reductions in force structure and modernization;
reprioritization of key missions and the requirements that support them; and
continued reforms and efficiencies in acquisition, management, and other
business practices,” and WHEREAS,
the National Defense Industrial Association projects that about 50 percent of
the proposed cuts will be seen in acquisition, and industries also will be
affected by the delay of a significant amount of procurement beyond 2017, and
the cancellation of some programs for poor performance; and WHEREAS, the
President’s budget also states that the nation’s new defense strategy, with its
leaner, more agile and flexible force, will require “a properly aligned
infrastructure from which to operate, deploy, and train,” and requests budget
authority for DOD to conduct two additional rounds of base realignment and
closure (BRAC), with the first commencing in 2013 and the second in 2015; and WHEREAS,
the Budget Control Act of 2011 requires that, in the absence of agreement in
Congress on a federal budget reducing the deficit by $1.2 trillion between 2013
and 2021, across-the-board cuts (sequestration) necessary to reach this target
will be made in both security and non-security spending in January 2013; and WHEREAS,
The Secretary of Defense, our Nation’s military leaders, and Defense Industry
representatives have warned that the indiscriminate and arbitrary additional
cut of $600 billion from sequestration over a ten year period to the Defense
Department would have a catastrophic impact to National Security, leading to
tens of thousands of additional military personnel being discharged from
Service and the immediate loss of thousands of defense-related jobs in the
private sector; and WHEREAS, the
nation’s cities are affected, directly and indirectly, by the arbitrary
reductions in spending for national defense, and local workforces and economies
will be affected by a lower level of military procurement and by the
abandonment or downsizing of military facilities located in proximity to urban
areas; and WHEREAS,
In this current climate of change, managing the human and economic impact of
reduced military industrial activity or a smaller military presence in and
around cities must be recognized as a national goal that is shared by DOD and
the local governments affected; and WHEREAS,
the formation of the Task Force on Defense Transition and U.S. Cities is the
Conference of Mayors’ response to the need to establish an open channel of
communication on transition issues with the Office of the Secretary of Defense;
and WHEREAS,
the U.S. Conference of Mayors Defense Transition Task Force also seeks to
engage non-defense agencies in the development of alternative applications of
defense technologies and alternative uses of defense facilities that become
available and in its work, the task force will focus on the development of new
opportunities for business development and job creation. NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED
that The U.S. Conference of Mayors encourages Congress and the Administration
to:
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RESOLUTION ADOPTED JUNE 2012